Natural gas liquids extraction plant starts operation in Haven

A large, new natural gas liquids extraction plant began operations in Haven on Monday.

The new Tenawa Haven Processing plant sits on the south side of K-96 opposite the city of Haven.

The plant was built near Haven because of its place at the junction of two major natural gas pipelines owned by Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line, said company president Greg Ameringer.

The plant takes in natural gas and drops the temperature to 150 degrees below zero to separate out the natural gas liquids – ethane, butane, propane and natural gasoline – from the methane, the main ingredient of natural gas. Ameringer estimated that 4 to 5 percent of the natural gas flowing through the Panhandle Easter pipeline can be successfully extracted.

“This is a big plant,” Ameringer said. “It will handle 1.3 billion – with a ‘b’ – cubic feet a day. So, it’s big, one of the biggest built in the United States in a long time.”

Those co-mingled natural gas liquids will be piped to the Oneok Hydrocarbon gas fractionation plant southwest of Hutchinson, where they will be separated into individual products.

Tenawa Haven Processing is wholly owned by Tenawa Resource Management, which is owned by various Houston and Dallas-based investors, he said. It employs 12 people on site.

Construction on the plant started in March 2014 and is now completed. He said plant operators will take another week or two to find any leaks and feel confident that the machinery works as planned.

“It takes a week or two to get all the bugs worked out,” Ameringer said.

There’s no storage of the natural gas liquids on site, he said, and there will be no flaring of gas. All the gas handled at the plant will be immediately shipped out.

“We have done a lot to make a very safe plant,” he said.

Haven Mayor Paula Scott said that the city appreciates having the jobs in the area and the name recognition.

“Anything that sheds a light on Haven is a positive to us,” she said.

This story was originally published April 13, 2015 at 5:02 PM with the headline "Natural gas liquids extraction plant starts operation in Haven."